SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is an American architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm with headquarters in Chicago. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. In 1939, they were joined by engineer John O. Merrill. The firm opened its second office, in New York City, in 1937. It subsequently expanded, with offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., London, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seattle, and Dubai.
Notable for its role in the development of modernist architecture in the United States and for its work in skyscraper design and construction, SOM has designed numerous prominent architectural and urban projects, including several of the world's tallest buildings. Among these are the John Hancock Center (1969, second tallest in the world when built); the Willis Tower (1973, tallest in the world for almost twenty-five years); the One World Trade Center (2014, currently the seventh tallest in the world); and the Burj Khalifa (2010, currently the world's tallest building). The firm's notable current work includes the new headquarters for the Walt Disney Company, the global headquarters for Citigroup, Moynihan Train Hall and the expanded Penn Station complex, and the restoration and renovation of the Waldorf Astoria in New York City; airport projects at O'Hare International Airport, Kansas City International Airport, and Kempegowda International Airport; urban master plans for the Charenton-Bercy district in Paris, New Covent Garden in London, Treasure Island in San Francisco, the East Riverfront in Detroit; P.S. 62, the first net-zero-energy school in New York City; and the design of the Moon Village, a concept for the first permanent lunar settlement, developed with the European Space Agency and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
SOM's multidisciplinary practice works across a range of scales and project types, providing services in architecture, building services/MEP engineering, digital design, graphics, interior design, structural engineering, civil engineering, sustainable design and urban design & planning.
